Scribbling Women: 19th-Century American Women Writers

3 units

In 1855, Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote to his publisher, William Tichnor, that America is now wholly given over to a damned mob of scribbling women and I should have no chance of success while the public taste is occupied with their trash. In this class, we examine works of those scribbling women of the nineteenth century. We read one of the best selling novels of the century, one that created a scandal and ruined the author's literary reputation, along with others that have garnered more attention in our time than their own. In addition to focusing on these women writers, we also explore questions about the canon and American literature: What makes literature good? What constitutes American literature? How does an author get in the canon and stay there? Finally, in this writing intensive course, there are frequent writing assignments and a strong emphasis on the essential writing process of drafting and revising.